Buried With Michael Sheen digs into Wales's toxic chemical dumping scandal

A new two-part BBC documentary, Buried With Michael Sheen, examines how toxic chemicals known as PCBs were buried in south Wales quarries during the mid-20th century. Much of the account rests on a filmed interview conducted nearly a decade ago with environmental campaigner Douglas Gowan, who was terminally ill at the time and wanted to share decades of research before he died. The interview was conducted by actor and director Michael Sheen.

Monsanto's legacy

The story centres on the now-defunct American chemical company Monsanto, which after the second world war produced controversial substances including Agent Orange, DDT, Roundup and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. From the 1940s until the late 1970s, PCBs were manufactured at Monsanto's plant in Newport, where Sheen spent part of his childhood. Gowan concluded that waste from the factory was buried in landfills across south Wales in a manner that allowed the chemicals to seep into surrounding soil and water.

Testimonies and suspicions

In the village of Ynysddu, residents recall lorries arriving at a nearby quarry at night and leaving behind a jelly-like substance that children later played with. Locals also report an unusually high number of cancer cases among dogs walked in nearby woods. Sheen also travels to Anniston, Alabama, former site of Monsanto's main US PCB plant, where a paediatrician describes an unusual number of birth defects among local children. Attorney Donald Stewart, who won a $300m settlement from Monsanto on the town's behalf in 1993, shares internal company memos dating back to 1949 suggesting Monsanto knew of the chemicals' dangers.

The documentary also reveals that in 1973, a UK government minister publicly disparaged Gowan's evidence in parliament, following a Sunday Times investigation by journalist Peter Pringle. In the episode's final act, Sheen joins an environmental scientist and a vicar, whose own interest was sparked by a deathbed confession from a former truck driver, to test soil samples near the old landfill sites. A concluding episode airing next week is expected to provide further answers in the long-running case.